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AudibleInk - The Given Day: A Novel
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List Price: $27.95
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Manufacturer: William Morrow
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780688163181
ISBN: 0688163181
Label: William Morrow
Manufacturer: William Morrow
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 720
Publication Date: 2008-09-23
Publisher: William Morrow
Release Date: 2008-09-23
Studio: William Morrow
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Editorial Reviews:
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Set in Boston at the end of the First World War, New York Times bestselling author Dennis Lehane's long-awaited eighth novel unflinchingly captures the political and social unrest of a nation caught at the crossroads between past and future. Filled with a cast of unforgettable characters more richly drawn than any Lehane has ever created, The Given Day tells the story of two families—one black, one white—swept up in a maelstrom of revolutionaries and anarchists, immigrants and ward bosses, Brahmins and ordinary citizens, all engaged in a battle for survival and power. Beat cop Danny Coughlin, the son of one of the city's most beloved and powerful police captains, joins a burgeoning union movement and the hunt for violent radicals. Luther Laurence, on the run after a deadly confrontation with a crime boss in Tulsa, works for the Coughlin family and tries desperately to find his way home to his pregnant wife. Here, too, are some of the most influential figures of the era—Babe Ruth; Eugene O'Neill; leftist activist Jack Reed; NAACP founder W. E. B. DuBois; Mitchell Palmer, Woodrow Wilson's ruthless Red-chasing attorney general; cunning Massachusetts governor Calvin Coolidge; and an ambitious young Department of Justice lawyer named John Hoover. Coursing through some of the pivotal events of the time—including the Spanish Influenza pandemic—and culminating in the Boston Police Strike of 1919, The Given Day explores the crippling violence and irrepressible exuberance of a country at war with, and in the thrall of, itself. As Danny, Luther, and those around them struggle to define themselves in increasingly turbulent times, they gradually find family in one another and, together, ride a rising storm of hardship, deprivation, and hope that will change all their lives.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Given Day
Comment: I am a fan of Dennis Lehane and thought Mystic River an unforgettable book. The Given Day is extremely long but remains informative with much education regarding Boston at the end of the First World War.
Lehane is excellent at drawing the reader into his story and developing almost touchable characters. However, I do think the book could benefit from some expert editing. Unlike Mystic River which couldn't be long enough.
The Coughlin family runs the gamut of emotions. A "cop" family emmersed in the political and biased character of the times, each of their attitudes is expertly defined. The mother is really just an aside whereas the Dad and the 3 sons are the centerpieces of the story.
The patriarch of the family, Tom Coughlin is a man who will defend his family at all costs and demands that his family think exactly as he does. His sons, Danny, Connor and Joe have very diverse personalities.
Danny is really the star of the book. He is his father's son but with the ability to see the wrongs that are being meted out to the less fortunate. His love for an Irish immigrant girl who the father dubs a "whore" causes a serious wrench in the family. Connor is much like his father in his bigoted and unforgiving attitude. He is an attorney with little or no ability to see the other side. But even his "kill them all" attitude as his solution for those unlike himself becomes hard for Dad to swallow. Joe is the baby of the family and he brings a sweetness and softer nature to this story.
Interwoven in the story is Babe Ruth. Personally I think the Babe Ruth story is much like an afterthought and is one of the parts that could be easily cut from this book.
A second and edgy story is the recognition of Luther Laurence and his struggle as a black man in a time and place where he is considered insignificant and less than human. His struggles are sad but he is not to be denied and spends a good deal of time avoiding the danger that surrounds him strictly because of his race.
Luther is a good addition to this book especially in our time when we have elected the first black president. The span of time to achieve the rightful place of African Americans is a testament to the failure of humans to not see everyone regardless of race, religion or way of life as important as they are.
I would like to say there is humor in these pages, but it is difficult to find much of that. This is a serious document of life during an historic time when the development and recognition of unions is attempting to rise above bias and hostility. When the police which pays for the roof over the Coughlin's heads and for food on their table, attempt to unionize all Hell breaks loose.
I would recommend this latest effort by Lehane particularly if you are a fan of his work. I think this is better than Burn Baby Burn but not as thrillng as Mystic River mainly because it lacks the intensity of a book that you simply can't put down.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An Honest and Unhappy Portrayal of Boston and America in 1919
Comment: The Given Day marks a departure for Lehane. The Given Day is historical fiction that explores the lives of ordinary working stiffs of Boston and the US circa 1919. The story centers around a tough, smart, and handsome Boston Irish copper named Danny Coughlin and Luther Laurence, a gifted black man on the run. Coughlin struggles in his relationship with his powerful father and Boston police captain, Thomas Coughlin. Luther had fled to Boston, but wants nothing more than to return to his wife and child in Tulsa. Their stories eventually come together at the Coughlin household and their mutual interest in the Irish immigrant working girl and family servant.
The characters can be a bit thin at times, their interactions sometimes predictable and maudlin, but Lehane excels in capturing the feel of the town and the times. Labor and ethnic strife boil below the surface. Workers toil in brutal conditions for low pay with no security. The Irish workers who have managed to get one rung up the ladder fear and hate not the bosses, but rather the new Italian immigrants (not to mention the few blacks in town). The political bosses even subject the Boston police rank-and-file to low pay, unsanitary working conditions, and extremely long hours. That summer of 1919 is known today as The Red Summer. In Boston, a potent mix of much-aggrieved workers, bomb-throwing anarchists, and a tyrannical police commissioner erupted in savage street violence during the Boston police strike.
Lehane also sends Coughlin and Laurence each to take a journey of redemption. Coughlin repudiates his role as a spy in the police union and goes on to become its leader. Laurence flees Tulsa and his wife, but is taken in by leaders in the local NAACP whom he repays with courage and loyalty.
Lehane manages to interweave a number of actual historical figures into his story without it feeling contrived. A young John Hoover of the federal Bureau of Investigation is as repellent on Lehane's pages as he was in real life. Calvin Coolidge, then Governor of Massachusetts, comes off as a duplicitous, back-stabber. The much lesser know Edwin Upton Curtis is the disastrously mean-spirited Boston police commissioner who manages to provoke the police strike just when civic and union leaders had reached terms. Perhaps most surprising is Lehane's use of Babe Ruth, who is featured to good effect in several chapters. Early in the book Ruth, then with the Red Sox, and his teammates get into an unlikely pickup game against a team of black players, including Luther Laurence. The game begins as an honest and vigorous athletic contest, but when the blacks start to win, the whites start to cheat and things turn nasty.
Lehane gives us a painfully honest portrayal of the bitter racial, ethnic, and class divisions that marred America in 1919 and he wraps it up in two engaging family stories. The best historical fiction leads the reader to search out the story in more detail and Lehane particularly succeeds with his descriptions of the little known 1917 race riot in East St. Louis (when whites attacked and killed Southern blacks who had come north for work) and the 1919 molasses plant explosion in Boston (which was blamed falsely on anarchists rather than on the lack of maintenance by the plants' owners). See Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919, A City in Terror: Calvin Coolidge and the 1919 Boston Police Strike, and Never Been a Time: The 1917 Race Riot That Sparked the Civil Rights Movement.
As a fan of Lehane's Kenzie-Gennaro series, I lament that they appear to be a thing of the past, but Lehane has clearly grown as a writer and that bodes well for the future. Highly recommended.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Boston re-visited
Comment: After visiting Boston this past summer I came to the conclusion it was a city that I have overlooked. Yes, it is steeped in history and that's what I love about bean town but I needed more. Ah, The Given Day combining fact and fiction bringing Boston to life in the early 1900's. Twists and turns, plots and subplots the Boston version of the film Gangs of New York. Well written page turner (even on my Kindle). The characters are larger than life and just pop off the pages. Visit turn of the last century Boston in The Given Day and you'll swear you were there too.
Customer Rating:
Summary: any given day
Comment: i returned his last book for a refund. this book isnot going back. at first when i started to read it i did not like it but i could not put it down(being from s boston) then it just took off iiked the way every thing fell in to place. it keep me reading for hours it was a history leason and a griping hold you novel. it was so good i am giving it as xmas gift could not go out and find a better book 5 stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Highly Anticipated...
Comment: This book was one I was waiting to be published for about three years once I heard it was in the works. I was so excited when it was released that I jumped right into it. For me, it was DaVinci Code-esque and that usually brings the book down a couple notches from overanticipation.
This was a masterpiece when I think of all the historical research and time it took to create the characters, plot, setting, etc. I enjoyed how the story alternated between Danny, Luther, and Babe with intersections of the characters as the story progresses. There is alot going on throughout the book with many of the character relationships and these are strong undercurrents to keep the story moving along. The story progresses into some pretty intense scenes after the midpoint and I found myself enthralled in the book at several junctures.
For me, the main struggle of the book was vocabulary. I found myself needing to look up more than a few words which caused for pauses and interruptions. I do read alot but this book was just seemed to be a bit over-my-head with unknown words. This might have contributed to my feeling that the book was a bit too long. Lastly, the ending wasn't as enjoyable as I was hoping.
I assume this book will be made into a movie. I think alot can be done with the 1918 Boston setting, the love story, and the Danny/Luther relationship to make it into a solid dramatic feature.
Dennis Lehane is one of my favorite authors. I hope he writes another book sooner than the time it took for this one to be published. Given the 700+ pages, I do understand why this one took so long to finish.
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